red hair. “I’ve never seen you so excited before. You haven’t talked that much about the library since I started styling you, but now you can’t seem to stop. This book club must be a real big deal.”
Maura Beth waited for the towel to come off and then kept at it. “Now, Terra, I’ve heard you say many times that you just love those Wednesday night potluck dinners at the Methodist church. We’ve got some delicious dishes at our book club, too. But you also told me once that you liked to read romance novels. I remember telling you to check out our selection at the library, but you’ve never come in.”
Terra exhaled and began combing out Maura Beth’s hair. “My schedule is so hectic. But, you know what, I think I’ll come in on my day off and check something out. You’re one of my best tippers. I owe you the courtesy.”
“And what about the book club?”
Terra giggled as she took her scissors in hand. “Why not? Truth is, I used to read a lot more than I do now. Then my grandmother kinda made me feel guilty about reading romance novels all the time. She claimed those covers with the shirtless men and the women spilling out of their bras, as she so graphically put it, were bad news, and they would rot my mind.”
“Bodice rippers and lusty busties.”
Terra jerked her head and blinked. “What?”
“In the library business that’s what we call the books you just described,” Maura Beth explained, enjoying herself thoroughly.
“That’s news to me. I just liked them for the fantasy of it all.”
But by the time Maura Beth had walked out of the salon freshly coiffed, she was reasonably certain that Terra Munrow would resume her career as a reader and maybe even join the book club as a bonus.
On another occasion, Maura Beth was equally effective proselytizing at The Cherico Market, where she already had her flyer tacked to the community bulletin board just inside the automatic sliding doors. But she wanted to go a step further and decided to go all out with the portly but affable manager, James Hannigan, who had special-ordered many holiday food items for her over the years. She also began to wonder if the relatively sparse use of the library might just be on her more than she cared to admit when she realized she had never once invited Mr. Hannigan to patronize her library. Well, it was way past time to do it.
“Mr. Hannigan,” she began one afternoon, seated in his office overlooking the aisles filled with shoppers and their carts below. “I wanted to ask you about your P.A. system, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course I wouldn’t mind. What did you want to know? Is the music too loud? I realize it sounds like elevator music,” he replied, clearly puzzled.
“Oh, no. The music is just fine. Just wondering if you’d be willing to use the P.A. to help my library,” she told him. “You already know about The Cherry Cola Book Club because you’ve been generous enough to let me post my flyer here. But I’d like to ask you to go a step further. Would it be out of line for me to request that someone in the store read the flyer to the shoppers several times a day over the intercom?”
Mr. Hannigan raised his eyebrows but looked more amused than anything else. “As in, ‘Attention, shoppers!’ That sort of thing?”
Maura Beth matched his pleasant expression and light-hearted tone of voice. “Any way you wanted to handle it would be fine with me. We’re just trying to let everyone know about our next meeting because we need a healthy attendance. Frankly, the future of the library could be at stake.”
“I had no idea,” he said, his demeanor darkening considerably. “But let’s just put it this way, Miz Mayhew. You’re one of my best customers, particularly around holiday time, so if you think these announcements over the P.A. would do you some good, then let’s go ahead and start ’em right away.”
“That’s very generous of you, Mr. Hannigan. I can’t tell you how much it means to me,” she answered, handing over another of her flyers. But she wasn’t finished yet. “And maybe at the tail end of the announcement about the book club meeting, you could mention to the customers that flyers were available at the checkout counters?”
He laughed big, his entire body shaking for a brief moment. “You’re as tough-nosed as one of my